Method of making oiled paper



' Feb. 6, 1923.

S. SPARKS.

METHOD OF MAKING OILED PAPER.

HLED OCT. I0 1921.

Patented Feb. 6, 1923.

E S TA TE S T l i SAMUEL SPARKS, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

METHOD OF MAKING OILED PAPER.

Application filed October 10, 1921. Serial No. 506,574.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that. I. SAMUEL SPARKS, a citizen of the United States, anda resident of Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State ofCalifornia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methodsof Making Oiled Paper, of which the followingis a specification.

In the fruit packing industry it has become customary to wrap the fruitin paper so as to better preserve it, and it has been discovered that iffruit be wrapped in oiled paper the fruit will be preserved longer thanif the paper is unoiled. Heretofore it has been difficult to apply theoil to the paper evenly and in suliiciently small amounts so that thepaper will not be objectionably oily. By this method I am enabled toproduce an oiled paper in which the oil is present in such small amountsthat the oiled paper can hardly be distinguished from the same paperbefore oiling. In other words, there is merely a trace of oil in thepaper, just a sufiicient amount to be readily absorbed and held by thefiber of the paper. Not only does this method operate to apply a veryslight amount of oil to the paper, but the oil is very uniformlydistributed through the paper so as to avoid heavy oiling in someportions and no oiling in other portions.

Any suitable apparatus may be employed for performing the operations ofthe method, and the accompanying drawings illustrate twoforms ofapparatus which may be con sidered as typical only:

Figure 1 is a more or less diagrammatic view of an apparatus forperforming the new method, a portion of the well-known Fourdrinier papermaking machine being shown, together with an oiling 'device which iscombined with said machine.

Figure 2 is amore or less diagrammatic elevation of a different form ofapparatus for performing the new method, the drying rolls shown inFigure 1 being omitted and a reel being shown instead.

In Figure l of the drawings, I have shown several drying rolls 3 of apaper making machine of the" Fourdrinier or any other suitable type. InFigure 2 I have shown a reel or spool of paper 4. In Figure 1 the strip5 of paper is drawn from the drying rolls 3, and in Figure 2 said stripof paper is drawn from the roll 4.

In both views a series of cold rolls 6 is provided and adjacent them areel'br spool 'ers 11 are 7. It is understood that suitable power willbe applied to turn the roll 3 and the reel 7 so as to draw the strip ofpaper 5 from the rolls 3 or 4, as the case may be. Rearwardly of therolls 6 I provide a pan 8 in which is placed the oil 9 used in theoiling operation. This oil may be of any suitable kind, as, for example,that known to the trade as oronite cr stal oil.

ounted to rotate within the pan 9 is an oil-applying roller 10 whichprojects above the upper edge of the pan. and the strip 5 of paper restsupon said roller. Guide rollpreferably placed on opposite sides of thepan 8, the upper portions of said rollers 11 being somewhat below thelevel of the upper portion of the roller 10 so that contact of theroller 10 with the strip of paper is insured. The shaft. 12 of theroller 10 is provided with a pulley 13 shown in dotted lines in thedrawing. The pulley 13 is driven by a belt 14 which is driven in turn bya pulley 15 on a shaft 16. Any suitable power will be applied to turnthe shaft 16.

Depending upon the amount of oil that is to be applied to the strip ofpaper, the roller 10 will be run faster or slower. It is preferable tohave the peripheral speed of the roller 10 less than the speed of thestrip of paper as it passes said roller. The less the peripheral speedof the roller 10 relative to the speed of the paper strip, the smallerwill be the amount of oil transferred from the pan 9 by the roller 10 tothe under-face of the paper. In Figure 1 the rolls 6 are t be consideredas being the cold calender rolls of the paper making machine to whichthe drying rolls 3 also belong, and there is i also shown a roller 17interposed between the left hand roll 3 and the roller 11.

To perform the new method upon either of the apparatus above described,the strip of paper will be caused to travel in the direction of thearrow a and the roller 10 will be driven in the direction of the arrow6, preferably at a much slower peripheral speed than the speed of thepaper strip. As the strip of paper runs over the face of the roller 10,it wipes the oil from that portion of the roller in contactv with thepaper and a comparatively slight amount of oil is more or lessdistributed upon the under-face of the paper strip. When the amount ofoil applied to the paper is comparatively slight, as is preferable inpractice, the oil is not applied absolutely evenly to the paper but runsmore or less in streaks, the amount of oil being insufficient to'coverthe strip as it is being applied. The strip thus oiled passes betweenthe adjacent cold rolls 6, which function to still further distributethe oil over the undenface of the strip. In the apparatus shown inFigure 1, the rolls 6 also calender the paper.

From the rolls 6 the oiled strip passes to and is wound upon the reel 7so as to form a roll 18 of oiled paper strip. This is one of theimportant operations of this method, sincethe paper strip is allowed toremain rolled for a sufficient length of time to permit the oil tobecome distributed evenly throughout the roll of paper. The pressure ofthe paper in the roll 18, together with the fact that the upper surfaceof the strip is brought into contact with the lower surface thereof,causes the oil to be distributed evenly over both surfaces and topermeate the fiber of the paper. The result is that if the roll 18 beallowed to stand for an interval of time, it will be'found uponunrolling it that there is not enough oil upon the paper to beappreciable to the sense of touch, though there is suflicient oil withinthe fiber of the paper to retard decay of fruit wrapped in the paper.The length of time which I have found to be suflicient for allowing thepaper to stand in the roll is from twenty-four to seventy-two hours. Inthis length of time the oil will diffuse so as to be. substantiallyuniformin amount throughout the strip of paper.

After the roll 18 has stood for a sufficient length of time, it is takento a sheet or roll cutting machine and cut and the cutpaper packed inthe manner at present employed for cutting and packing unoiled paper.

Though I have disclosed in the drawings and described two specific formsof apparatus for performing the method, it will be readily understoodthat the method can be performed with apparatus varying somewhat fromthose described. For example, it will be perfectly obvious, withoutfurther illustration, that the pan 8 and roller 10 may be interposedbetween any two of the drying rolls of a paper making machine, or thatit may be interposed between the cold calender rolls of such machine andthe reel 7. In

other Words, it does not matter so much whether the oil is applied tothe strip at one point or another during its passage through the papermaking machine, or at a point after the strip has left the paper makingmachine, but it is quite important that the strip, after the oil isapplied, be formed into aroll, as above described, so that perfectdiffusion of the oil will take place, in order that the comparativelysmall amount of oil that is applied to the strip may be absorbed evenlyto such extent as to leave no noticeable trace thereof to the touch.

By preparing oiled paper by this method, the paper is highly useful inthe packing of fruit and, heretofore, no satisfactory method has beenfound for producing such oiled paper.

If desired. the strip of paper after receiving the application of oilmay be out into sheets and the sheets placed in a pile so as to securethe same effect of oil diffusion and permeation as in the roll. Ineither event it will be readily understood that the paper after oilingis massed to secure the desired results.

I claim 1. In the method of making oiled paper, thecombination of stepsconsisting in applying oil to portions only of an uncalendered strip ofpaper, passing said paper between rolls to distribute the oil to unoiledportions of the paper, and then winding the strip into a roll.

2. In the method of making oiled paper, the combination of stepsconsisting in applying oil to a strip of paper in insufiicient amount tocover the strip as itis being applied. and then winding the oiled stripinto a roll'to cause even distribution and penneation of the oil.

3.; In the method of making oiled paper, the combination of stepsconsisting in applying oil to portions only of a strip of paper, andmassing the paper thus oiled to effect diffusion and permeation of theoil.

Signed at Los- Angeles, California, this '30th day of September, 1921.

SAMUEL SPARKS. Witnesses:

GEORGE. H, HILES, ,L. BELLE WEAVER.

